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Johny Fernandez: I'm at the
Javits Center, the largest

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convention hall in all of New
York City. It was supposed to

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host the LendIt Fintech
Conference earlier this year,

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but the pandemic of 2020 had
different plans. The Javits

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Center right behind me was
transformed into a temporary

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hospital that would treat
patients with non COVID related

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illnesses. That was back in
April and that lasted for about

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a month. But the restrictions
for large mass gatherings are

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still in place, making events
like LendIt FinTech seek out

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alternatives. This year, Lendit
Fintech has gone virtual.

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Viewers may recall conference
co-founder and CEO Bo Brustkern

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aggressively marketing it in the
weeks leading up to the event

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that actually took place this
week. The company originally

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appeared to be defensive about
overcharging a hefty price tag

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for what was presumed to be a
series of Zoom panels. Brustkern

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made his case for why this would
be different in ads peppered

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across social media.

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Bo Brustkern: Your job is too
important to waste time on a

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virtual conference with garbage
content and surface level

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networking. Believe me, I get
it. Lendit Fintech USA isn't

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like all that free Zoom garbage
out there.

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Johny Fernandez: It should be
noted that the last time LendIt

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Fintech held an event here at
the Javits Center was back in

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2017. And it drew in nearly 5,000
people. Now that number dropped

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to nearly 4,000 people back in
2019, when it held an event in

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San Francisco. LendIt was
marketing the in-person event

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that had been planned for this
year and it was hoping to hit

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that same figure of 4,000 people.
But then the format changed. A

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virtual event accessible from
anywhere in the world could

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potentially open the doors for a
much larger audience. But it

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doesn't always work out that
way. When we logged into the

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LendIt virtual event platform on
its opening day, there appeared

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to be less than 1200 attendees,
a steep drop off. Despite this,

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a sample of attendees surveyed
by deBanked reported back that

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they had been provided a
valuable networking experience,

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good content, and a cool
newscast like feel when the

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co-founders were live on camera.
The Javits Center is back open

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but for limited use, for
example, its broadcast studio

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can still be rented out. But if
you're looking for a hall full

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of fintech fans, you're gonna
want to go online for that.

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That's the latest here from
Manhattan's West Side. I'm

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Johny Fernandez with deBanked
news. Sean, we're gonna send it

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back over to you in the studio.

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Sean Murray: Thanks, Johny.
Believe it or not right behind

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me here on the screen is the
actual Lendit Fintech virtual

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event happening in real time.
This is not a screen recording.

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In fact, right now, what we're
looking at is the screen they

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show you in between sessions,
which is why we're doing the

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broadcast right now, because we
don't want to miss any of the

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content that they're putting out
there. And I will say that I was

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at the Javits Center back in
2017 for that LendIt event, and

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you mentioned something about
the crowds having gotten just a

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little bit smaller over time. I
think that's really due to the

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industry getting more mature,
more sustainable and weeding out

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a lot of the bad ideas. I will
add that the LendIt co-founders

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reported that networking was so
active on the first day of the

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virtual event that they logged a
total of 2,171 meetings booked

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on the platform. One attendee
told me that he actually

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conducted more than 25 virtual
meetings on the first day. But

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it's not just fintech people who
are adopting the digital

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experience. 2020 has been the
year that consumers and business

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owners have had to as well.
They've had no choice. So today,

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our guests are Raf and Vlad from
a company called Smarter Loans,

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based in Toronto, Canada, who
have been following the rapid

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expansion of fintech, but also
the digital adoption of the

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modern era,

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Rafael: We're definitely seeing
a shift towards more digital

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products and digital behavior in
the financial space and outside

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of it as well. So we definitely
anticipate an increase in users,

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you know, engaging with brands
that are able to offer a digital

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experience, right, we're seeing
that across a variety of

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different industries, you know,
whether it's personal loans, the

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automotive sector, or the
business side of things as well.

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Consumers that are aren't able
to go into a retail environment

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now are gravitating towards
digital. And that's a trend that

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we're you know, hoping to see in
2020 as well.

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Vlad: And overall, I mean, when
you look at COVID, and the

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result that it's had on
different activities in

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different sectors, ecommerce has
been on the rise, right. And not

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just for everyday household
items that maybe we go to Amazon

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to buy, but also for financial
products. And that behavior

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change has- is something that we
noticed in our previous studies

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into 2019 and even in 2018. But
that behavior change has been

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given a jolt. So we're expecting
that even if there's an economic

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slowdown, that this shift in
consumer behavior will actually

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continue long beyond and we're
starting to see that already.

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And and one way that we've been
impacted is that we've been a

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leader in loans in quite some
time, but even for our existing

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customers we've started to
expand our service offering to

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them and starting telling them
about additional options for

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financial products that they can
obtain digitally and whether

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that can be everyday banking
solutions like checking and

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savings accounts, or insurance
services, or investing, money

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transfers, and so on and so
forth.

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Sean Murray: Thank you guys. As
you can tell, we're about to

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head back into Lendit Fintech
Virtual. I'll see you next time.

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I'm Sean Murray.